For many years speaker cabinets have been used to produce sounds from sound producing devices, such as musical instruments, amplifiers, stereos, TV's, and other electrically operated sound producing devices. Currently, a wide variety of speaker cabinets exist. These speaker cabinets contain a variety of different speaker types, such as traditional cone type speakers, and non-cone containing electrostatic speakers. The speaker cabinets themselves can be small, such as those typically found with computer systems: mid-size, such as the floor-restable speakers typically purchased as a part of home-use stereo systems and home theater systems; large, such as the amplifier-containing speaker cabinets typically used by a “bar-band”, and disk jockeys; and very large, such as the speaker cabinets that are employed to project sound into large venues, such as concert halls, and stadiums.
Regardless of the size of the speaker cabinet, or the type of speakers employed, certain characteristics are true of all speaker cabinets. One such characteristic is that vibrations are produced as a by-product of the production of sound. These vibrations are expected, as the basis of sound is the production of vibrations, with the pitch being dependent upon the frequency of the vibrations. These speaker cabinet-produced vibrations are capable of inducing vibrations in the environment, such as the room or concert hall, in which the speaker cabinets operates. In particular, the vibrations produced by the speakers within a speaker cabinet can cause the speaker cabinet housing to vibrate. These vibrations produced by the speaker cabinet housing can induce vibrations into the surface on which the speaker cabinet is placed.
In most situations commonly encountered by consumers, these vibrations do not create much problem, and are handled quite well by the vibration-resistant properties of the cabinet in which the speakers are placed. If additional sound isolation is necessary for many small, consumer type speaker cabinets, an acoustic isolator, such as a bath towel, carpet, or blanket can be placed between the speaker cabinet and the surface on which it rests, to help isolate the speaker cabinet's vibrations from the floor or other surface on which the speaker cabinet rests.
As a general rule, the amount of vibrations produced by a speaker cabinet is dependent upon the manner in which the speaker cabinet is constructed, the materials from which the cabinet is constructed and the volume of sound being produced by the speakers. In accordance with this general rule, the amount of vibrations produced by a speaker cabinet of a given particular construction and material composition will generally be dependent upon the volume (loudness) of the sound being produced by a speaker cabinet.
As the amount of vibration produced by a speaker cabinet is dependent upon volume level, the difficulty of isolating vibrations produced by a speaker cabinet from its resting surface is also generally proportional to the volume of the sound being produced. Therefore, the placement of a towel or carpet scrap under a “home-sized” speaker cabinet played at normal listening volume levels may be sufficient to acoustically isolate the speaker cabinet from the floor of the residence. However, a towel or carpet remnant may not be sufficient to acoustically isolate the speaker cabinet used by a “bar band,” or an arena or stadium performer from the stage or other floor surface on which the speaker cabinet rests; or, for that matter, even a “home-sized” speaker cabinet that is played at high, “party-level” volume levels. As such, although the acoustic isolator of the present invention is well suited for acoustically isolating vibrations produced by speakers of almost all available sizes, the enhanced acoustic isolation properties of the present invention are especially well adapted to those situations where:                (a) a large volume level of sound is being produced, such as the volume level of sound produced by a bar-band, a concert hall performer, a diskjockey, or the like; and/or        (b) a greater acoustic sensitivity exists, thus making an enhanced need for acoustic isolation desirable.        
Examples of places having enhanced acoustical sensitivity include both commercial establishments and residential dwellings. A recording studio is an example of a commercial establishment where enhanced acoustic isolation is desirable, since it is important to be able to control the level and characteristics of the sound being produced and recorded in the studio, in order to achieve the sound desired on the recording.
An example of an acoustically sensitive residential area is multi-unit residential structure, such as an apartment building or condo, where the sounds and vibrations produced in one unit, will often cause vibrations and noise in an adjoining unit. As the sound producer's neighbors within her multi-unit residence are not likely to appreciate the vibrations produced by the sound producer's speaker cabinets, an acoustic isolator can help to reduce the perceived nuisance caused by the sound produced by speaker cabinets played at a volume loud enough to cause vibrations to be transmitted into adjoining units. Similar concerns exist in single unit dwellings where children enjoy playing music at volume levels greater than those levels preferred by their parents.
As stated above, acoustic isolators are known, and can consist of something as simple as a towel or carpet scrap placed between the speaker cabinet and the surface on which it rests. Nonetheless, room for improvement exists. In particular, room for improvement exists in acoustically isolating the vibrations produced by a high output, high volume (loudness) speaker cabinet from the surface upon which it rests. Additionally, room for improvement exists in producing enhanced acoustical isolation between a speaker cabinet and the surface upon which it rests for low and moderate output speaker cabinets used in acoustically sensitive environments.
Therefore, one object to the present invention is to provide an acoustic isolator that helps to provide acoustical isolation between the vibrations produced by high output speaker cabinets and the surface upon which the cabinet rests.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an acoustic isolator that helps to acoustically isolate the vibrations produced from a moderate or low output speaker cabinet, from the surface on which it rests, in an acoustically sensitive environment.